The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 1

urlwguj 143rd Year Serving Vermont 32 Paget, 15c Horn Dtlivtrtd No. 173 Wedneday, July 21, 1971 Vietnamese $1 00-million Airport Thefts Open Assault 1 in Cambodia Are Detailed for Senators Young Woman Slain, Strangler Is Sought i '-J, fry TAY NINH, Vietnam (AP)- A South Vietnamese force, spearheaded by 200 armored vehicles, launched a major new drive into Eastern Cambodia on Wednesday, the biggest in six months. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Van Minn, the commander, said at his headquarters that the objective was to provide security for the South Vietnamese congressional elections next month and the presidential election in October.

"Our mission," Minh said, "is to cut off North Vietnamese infiltration into South Vietnam, to prevent the enemy from sabotaging the We" must provide security for the election campaign." There were no reports of contact immediately. It was the largest operation launched by Minh since he took over last February as commander of the 3rd Military Region that embraces Saigon and 11 surrounding provinces. The region shares more than 200 miles of border with Cambodia. Minh said his forces were operating about 20 miles inside Cambodia and about 10 miles north of Highway 7, a key North Vietnamese infiltration route leading from Cambodia into the southern half of South Vietnam. Minh said he plans to "saturate the area" from the Cambodian town of Krek eastward to the town of Mimot along Highway 7 and northward.

WASHINGTON (AP) A convicted mail thief supplied investigating senators Tuesday with the names, dates and places of a $100-million theft ring despite what he said were threats to the safety of his children. Testifying under guard, under oath and under a grant of immunity from further prosecution, James V. Schaefer, 30, confessed publicly to receiving about $400,000 as his share of more than 100 thefts from airports around the country. Schaefer, his thin, tattooed arms showing under a short-sleeved, open-collared sport shirt, said the loot often contained top-secret documents which he said the gang destroyed out of fear. At the urging of chairman John L.

McClellen, of the Senate Investigations Subcommittee, Schaefer rose and pointed out Frank Mannerino as one of the men he said fenced stolen goods for the ring headed by a previous witness, Robert F. Cudak. Mannerino, of Valley Stream, N.Y., invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer all questions about his alleged connection with the thefts. "I stole more than all of them," Schaefer said. He said he did most of the "dirty work" but his confederates got most of the proceeds.

Cudak has said he received $1 million as his share of three years of stealing from airports. Schaefer supported that testi mony as well as most of Cudak's other statements as "honest and truthful." Schaefer, who like Cudak said he gambled away most of his loot, confessed to a $21-million registered mail theft from a TWA airliner at John F. Kennedy International Airport June 13, 1968. He named as his accomplice in that theft William Ricchuitti, now a federal prisoner, who in a previous appearance invoked the Fifth Amendment 88 times. No arrests have ever been made in that case in which securities stolen from registered mail bags were fenced all around the country and allegedly used in illicit business deals.

Schaefer told McClellan calls were placed to the Concord, By STUART PERRY A 24-year-old Milton Elementary School teacher was beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted in the bedroom of her 17 Brookes Ave. apartment here late Monday night. Dead is Miss Rita P. Curran, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.

Thomas Curran Jr. of Milton. Curran, an IBM employe, is zoning administrator in Milton. As police probed for any possible clue to her assailant, State's Atty. Patrick J.

Leahy described the slaying as "'an extremely brutal homicide. Certainly one of the most brutal I've seen in my years as state's attorney." (Obituary on Page 6) Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lawrence Harris said Miss Curran, a second grade teacher, had been strangled to death by hand. 1 here were signs of an intense struggle. Her body was discovered about 1 :20 a.m.

by a roommate. Miss Beverly Lamphere. She told Chief of Detectives Lt. Richard Beaulieu that she and another roommate, Kerry Duane, and a close friend, Paul Robinson, returned to the apartment in the quiet residential section of the city at about They said they did not see Miss Curran but were not concerned because they believed she had retired for the night. It wasn't until Miss Lamphere entered the bedroom that she discovered Miss Curran's body near the door.

Miss Lamphere said she had last seen the victim alive at about 11:20 p.m. when she left the apartment to join Miss Duane and Robinson at a Shelburne Road restaurant. She said Miss Curran was alone and in their bedroom when she left the apartment. Police Tuesday said it was apparent neither the front nor back door to the apartment was locked. When the trio returned they sat in the living room for more than an hour talking, unaware of the tragedy in the next room.

The nude body of the petite brunette was found on her back directly inside the bedroom door. Her purse, which contained cash and all her personal papers including her driver's license, was on the floor directly behind the door. Police said there was no indication the purse had been touched. A late model car owned by the victimwas parked in front of the three-apartment house and had not been tampered with. Her blood-splattered face corroborated tHe chief medical examiner's report that her head had been savagely beaten by fists.

A torn pair of underpants lay partially hidden beneath the victim's body. At a news conference later in the day. Dr. Harris advised newsmen Miss Curran's death was caused by asphyxia by manual strangulation accompanied by additional blows to the face and head. He added his autopsy indicated drugs were not involved.

Chief of Detectives Lt. Beaulieu and his staff, aided by Investigator Leo Blais of the state's attorney's staff, worked through the night taking samples from and around the body and photographing the death scene. A small patch of blood was found at the)ack door in the kitchen, indicating the murderer left by this route. The door leads into a rear storage shed and a backyard. The apartment was closed off to all but the JAMES SCHAEFER tells a Senate investigations subcommittee Tuesday about his part in thefts of $100 million at airports.

(UPI Telephoto) Mass. home of his former wife Katherine both before and after he promised senators last June 17 he would testify in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He said the caller appeared to be getting instructions from another man in the background and that he threatened the safety of the two Schaefer children. Schaefer is now in protective custody and McClellan indicated his family is also receiving federal protection. Schaefer, like Cudak, said security at airports was practically nonexistent during 1968, 1969 and 1970, the three years in which the ring was active.

He said he toured several airports earlier this month with a Senate investigator and found security still lax. "We were successful for a long time because we learned the routines! of the airport," Schaefer said. "We wore neat clothing, helmets, ear mufflers and slickers just like those "used by airport workers. CIA Warned of Long War Dividin U.S., Paper Sa ys Miss Curran detectives Tuesday as Identification Officer Harold Baker combed the apartment for a telltale fingerprint. None of the windows on the ground floor or basement had been disturbed, indicating the murderer entered through the front or back door.

Neighbors living in nearby apartments were questioned Tuesday but none reported hearing screams or any kind of a struggle late Monday night. Friends of the dead teacher were being questioned Tuesday and in particular one young man whom friends said Miss Curran had dated on occasion. Vacations of several detectives were canceled Tuesday as the force went on a round-the-clock probe. A police spokesman reported late Tuesday night there was "nothing at all" to add to the original news release. He said detectives had no further information regarding the murder.

Beaulieu said state police had offered all their resources to the department and the offer had been accepted. Miss Curran was described by friends as a quiet person but one who was always ready to help others. As late as 10 p.m. Monday Miss Curran was involved in a barbershop quartet rehearsal at the Sara Holbrook Center on North Avenue. She had enrolled in a reading and language arts workshop at the University of Vermont's graduate school summer session.

Miss Curran had beenfemployed for the summer as a chambermaid at the Colonial Motor Inn. On Monday she worked from 8:15 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. A spokesman for the inn said Miss Curran was popular with the staff and had been employed there for the past three or four years, even while attending Trinity College. She often referred to herself at the inn as an ugly duckling and often expressed the hope of being married.

She recently told friends there she had attended three weddings this year and had moved to Burlington this year because all the eligible bachelors were taken in Milton. Her employer. Principal Merritt Clark said that as a second grade teacher Miss Curran was dedicated to the children. "The boys and girls seemed to like being in her class. She did a lot of work with deprived and handicapped children," said Clark.

"She had a knack about her working with these kids." Rails, Steel Threaten Labor Peace Outlook disengage their- support gradually and 1- "There would still be serious 'criticism of the policy, but it would remain minor if the entire event was over within 12 to 24 months." National Review called the documents it published highly classified. It said they were leaked to the magazine, but did not say by whom. The magazine said they had not been among the Pentagon papers published by the New York Times and other newspapers. "The articles are fragments from more extensive files which were made available to National Review in protest against what the informant held to be distorted impressions conveyed by the documents published in the New York Times." The Pentagon papers were part of a Defense Department study covering the period 1948-1968, and relating to the origins of the war in Southeast Asia. In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said he understood the Justice Department was looking into the publication of the National Review material.

"We are not aware at this time whether they are Pentagon papers or some other kind," said Brig. Gen. Daniel James. NEW YORK (AP) The Central Intelligence Agency warned the Defense Department in 1963 that a protracted war in Vietnam would sharply divide the American public, with an eventual loss of their support, according to documents published in the current National Review. Such a divisive effect, the CIA said on another occasion, was the propaganda goal of Soviet Russia, which wanted the longest possible war for the United States in Southeast Asia, the magazine account said.

The conservative magazine, whose publisher is William F. Buckley published what it described as a 1963 CIA psychological assessment, favoring "Short Term Warfare" of 12 to 24 months in Vietnam. It read in part: "It would be an error to assume a protracted conflict in Southeast Asia would be supported by the American people. Any move on the part of the U.S. will be criticized by a large vocal minority.

This minority will grow with time, for it is the nature of the American people to wish not to be or seem to be belligerent. "When it appears there are ambiguities in our purpose (and this state of affairs will surely emerge in a war effort only abstractly involving American interests) public opinion will WASHINGTON (APi New contract settlements appeared certain or near Tuesday for more than one million telephone, postal and copper workers, while the possibility of a steel industry strike loomed and a railroad walkout threatened to spread. Leaders of seven AFL-CIO postal unions signed a contract with Postmaster General Win-ton Blount covering 650.000 workers. 400.000 striking telephone workers were set to return to their jobs at midnight pending a contract vote and 25 striking copper unions arranged a meeting to consider a settlement offer. Some units of the Communications Workers, mainly in New York and Florida, balked at the proposed 33.5 per cent, three year wage and fringe benefits increase as inadequate, but union leaders appeared confident a majority would vote for it.

If not. the strike could resume next month. It will take several weeks to complete the vote. The AFL-CIO United Steel-workers union announced the new offer for 35.000 copper strikes, but ordered a strike authorization vote among some 350.000 steel industry workers whose contracts expire Aug. 1.

IGood Here They Are. I 1 Sy 'vH i i "I''mi if i i i fr I hm mm MmmI Ji Hi I fS J-fKlV Amusements 14 Classified 27 Comics 26 Editorials 18 Landers 19 Obituaries 6 i Sports 20 Stocks 26 Women's 10 AREA WEATHER Wednesday mostly sunny and pleasant, maximum in the upper 70s. Generally fair Wednesday night, minimum middle to low 50s. Thursday considerable sunshine and warmer. Precipation probability near 0 per cent Wednesday and Wednesday night.

This forecast was issued at 10 p.m. Tuesday. TIUOWCAl Cll-4-7411 Call 4-7474 I Chckr Txl Today's DaU SunrlM, tunMt, 1:30. HighMt ttmptrtlur thli datt lt 74; lowtit, 5. Rtcord high thli data, in ItSS.

Htcord low, 43 In IN. Normal high thli datt 12, low 54. Thara hat baan torn praclpltatlon on July 21 In 43 par cant of tha yaart ilnca 1M. Yesterday's Data, YaitardayiOtttlaaki Fair. Actual Oatat Hlghait daytima tamparatura, 74 at 4:30 p.m.) lowtit for 24 'hour andlng at p.m., at a.m.

Dagraa day unltt for Monday wara accumulation tinea July 1, 12. Latt yaar'a flgura this day, 10, normal dagraa day unltt, 1. Laka tamparatura, at. Daytima cloudlnttt 7-10 of day; tunthlna, par cant of day; total praclpltatlon for 74 hourt andlng at 10 p.m., 0 Inchat; total praclpltatlon for month to data, 2.07 Inchat. is m.

(Free and William Ready, assisted by Patrolman Richard Garrow. Press Photos by Stuart Perry) CHIEF OF DETECTIVES Lt. Richard Beaulieu (left) seeks clues on floor of victim's bedroom. State's Atty. Patrick Leahy and Investigator Leo Blais observe.

In apartment living room (center) Beaulieu, Detective Wayne Liberty, Deputy State's Atty. Francis X. Murray and Leahy confer. Blais stands in background looking into another room. Victim's body is removed (right) from apartment at 5 a.m.

by George ft.